Jessica Pegula is into the semifinals of the Dubai Tennis Championships after coming through a difficult clash with Clara Tauson.
The American, seeded fourth at the WTA 1000 event, emerged victorious over Tauson in three sets, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4, to book her place in the final four.
Pegula dropped her first set of the tournament against the Norwegian, having won her first two matches versus Varvara Gracheva and teenaged compatriot Iva Jovic comfortably.
Her semifinal appearance is her third of the season, after the 31-year-old reached the penultimate stage at both the Brisbane International and the Australian Open.
Pegula’s semifinal streak actually dates even further back than the 2026 season, and she has now achieved a feat not even Aryna Sabalenka or Iga Swiatek can match.
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Jessica Pegula reaches her seventh WTA semifinal in a row
The world number five has reached the semifinals of seven consecutive WTA Tour-level events, becoming the first player to do so since Agnieszka Radwanska in 2016, according to Opta Ace.
At the US Open in 2025, Pegula made it to the semifinals, where she was beaten by eventual champion Sabalenka.
Since then, Pegula has advanced past the quarterfinals at every tournament she has appeared in, with the US star making the final of the Wuhan Open during that period.
She has not been able to win any of the seven competitions, however; the near miss in Wuhan being her closest attempt.
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Jessica Pegula explains how she manages her heavy workload
In five of her last seven tournament appearances, Pegula has featured in singles as well as either doubles or mixed doubles.
When asked in her post-match press conference how she is able to handle the workload, Pegula jokingly responded: “I don’t know. People just ask me to do things, and I tend to say yes to everything. I don’t really say no very often.”
She then explained: “But no, I think in a sense, though, I’m pretty laid back. I don’t get overly stressed very easily.
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“I think because I’m able to manage a lot of things naturally, maybe with my personality, that it doesn’t quite worry me and stress me out.
“But I don’t really think this role will be changing much more than I already do. We already had some circuit structure councils in place previously over the last two or years that I’ve been on. It just hasn’t been a priority.
“I think now that’s really the only difference. I think just having my name there as a top player will kind of help, I don’t know, steer that. But yeah, I don’t know. People just ask me to do things.”
As well as her trip to the US Open singles final in 2024, Pegula made a Grand Slam doubles final at the 2022 French Open alongside Coco Gauff.
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